The Iridium satellite system provides worldwide voice and data service to geographically distributed subscriber devices using a constellation of low-earth-orbit satellites. Each satellite contributes an array of antenna spot beams such that the satellite constellation provides coverage over the entire surface of the Earth.
Due to its ability to provide service in locations not reached by terrestrial cell-based wireless communication systems and owing to ongoing enhancements in service capabilities and performance, the Iridium satellite system has seen a continuing increase in subscriber usage. Current and expected future call volumes necessitate enhancements in network monitoring tools to allow system operators and technicians to assess performance, troubleshoot operational problems, and plan system modifications and improvements. In the field of satellite-based communication systems, presently available network monitoring tools are cumbersome and limited and cannot adequately support such network diagnostics and planning. For example, to display a geographic distribution of call activity, it would be necessary to parse historic call records from call records/billing records databases. This approach would result in static views of long-past call activity, with typical delays of hours or days and no real-time analysis capability. Further, there is no ability to associate calls with certain satellites, satellite antenna panels, or antenna beams in a real-time, dynamic display.
An inconvenient and somewhat invasive capability exists to patch into and analyze message traffic by attaching jumper cables at certain points within Iridium terrestrial gateway equipment. The connection mechanism permits only about one-fourth of the message traffic flowing through the equipment to be captured. The technique is generally suitable only for observations that last a limited period of time and produces a large text dump that requires substantial processing to extract information. Even if multiple such connections were to be made, it would be difficult to merge their outputs into a single data stream. Moreover, no capability exists to track and associate calls or to trigger on certain combinations of call attributes to organize information in a meaningful manner.